Marlee Matlin Calls Out Delta for Lack of Closed Captioning

Image: PHOTO: Delta seatback screens. (Photo courtesy of Delta)
Image: PHOTO: Delta seatback screens. (Photo courtesy of Delta)
Rich Thomaselli
by Rich Thomaselli
Last updated: 12:30 AM ET, Mon December 30, 2019

Academy Award-winner Marlee Matlin has called out Delta Air Lines, saying the carrier has made no accommodations for deaf and hard-of-hearing fliers on its flights.

The actress, who is deaf and is an advocate for the deaf and hearing impaired, took out her frustrations with a tweet noting the airline's lack of closed captioning on its in-flight entertainment system.

Some 46,000 people liked the Tweet, and Delta responded with a tweet of its own and a statement to USA TODAY, saying that although most of their aircraft with seatback screens "have a wide variety of closed captioned content, unfortunately, Ms. Matlin's flight has not yet been upgraded to include this feature. Accessibility is important to us (and) we apologize and are working diligently to upgrade our remaining fleet."

Delta also tweeted a reply to Marlin noting that "As an alternative option, you can access closed-captioned Delta Studio content via Gogo Entertainment app on your personal electronic device."

But Matlin was not satisfied with the answer and replied back to the airline.

Delta did not respond to that tweet from Matlin.


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Rich Thomaselli

Rich Thomaselli

Associate Writer

Editor Associate Writer true 9281 14744 Rich Thomaselli has written for TravelPulse since 2014 and has been a professional journalist for nearly 40 years. His work has appeared in USA Today, the New York Times and New York Yankees publications. He is an 11-time writ

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